Starting early in the morning ,has a benefit that there will be very less traffic and we will be able to cover a considerable distance in that time. We decided to follow the Hosur->Selam->Namakkal->Trichy->Tanjavoor->Velankanni route .
We stay in bennarghetta road and so we usually take nice road to reach electronic city.But then our driver suggested that the new elevated highway from silkboard to elctronic city is open and lets take that route.
We were heading at almost 120 km/hour.
The distance from Electronic city to Selam is almost 160 plus kilometers. and we could cover that distance in almost 2 hours.We reached Selam,our first major point at 6.30 in the morning.The roads are really really good on this route and night drive is also fast as there are small plants in the median which stops lights of vehicles coming from otherside.
We reached Namakkal at 7.30 a.m and we were hungry as we started early in the morning.We decided to stop at Namakkal and have breakfast.But most of the hotels were closed at that time.We could only find one hotel.Though the name board said High class hotel,I really wonder what highclass meant,in this case.We had masala dosa. I doubt the masala was a bit stale.After having that I was feeling like puking. Though our driver was driving kind of OK,sitting in the back seat was not at all comfortable while he drove.He was not applying break properly at humps .Also the road condition from Namakkal was not at all good as compared to the highways.There were lot of pits in between patches and it was just a double road without any median in between.We thought tamil Nadu was not so green a place.
But we were surprised to see lush green farms on the side of the road.Actually this road is side by side with river Kavery ,and may be that is the reason for this greenery.We could see sunflower farms and lotus ponds on our sides.Except for the road condition everything else was beautiful.There were many junctions where we had to take turns.Expecially near trichy and all.So if you are not sure about the the route,its better you ask and proceed.We reached Velankanni at 12 in the noon. Total distance covered was 500Kms.We didnt book any hotel in advance as we thought its best to go and book is the best option.First we checked at Hotel MGM which had real nice facilities.The rate was a bit high for a one night stay.So we finally decided to stay at Hotel Picnic where the rate was around 1200 per ac room.We were really hungry ,so we didnt look for different other hotel options.The rooms were not so clean.We decided to adjust for the one night stay.Thought this hotel had a mallu restaurent ,we felt it was not clean at all.So we went to Hotel Seagate to have lunch.Here also cleanliness was not there.But since we were hungry we ate from there.
After lunch we decided to go straight to church. When we reached there we saw that the front door of teh church was closed.We were little disappointed to see this.We saw lot of people and we went to the other side of the church and we saw that it was open.We wanted to "vjerippu" our car. So we went to security office and found out that this can be done at 4.00pm in the evening.So we decided spend time in the church till 4.We went inside the church and wanted to sit some time and pray.It was really sad to see people littering the church floor ,not even thinking a moment that this is a church.After sometime we decided to we came out thought will go and see the chappels adjacent to the church.It was almost 3 in the evening was really hot at that time.
We went and sat under a tree there and decided that we will visit the chappels after the sun is a little less rude.It will be a very good idea to carry a cap.You can also buy cap from the beach side shops.At 4 we took a slip from the security to bring the car in for venjerippu.A priest came and did the car venjerippu.We were really happy that we could do that.
After that we saw a small building -a meauseum near to the church. We just went inside that and some paintings and artworks on Jesus Christ.When we captured those ,it came out really nice in the snaps.
We enquired about the timing for malayalam service and we came to know that the malayalam service is only at 9 in the morning.After 5 we went to the chappel opposite to main church.This is where th holy tank of The Lady is located.Its a walk of almost 1.5 km.After coming back from the chappel we went to the main Church which was open for the Tamil Mass.By the time we came out from the church, we were really tiered. Still we thought we will just go to the beach and come back.It was already dark .
There were lot of small shops on the way to beach.This place was totally washed off in the Tsunami.I saw really long candles hanging in some of the shops.We could find some good chains and all created with shells there.We couldn't see the beach at all , because it was totally dark there.
We went back to hotel,had dinner and slept off.We started at 4.00 am next day morning .On the way back there was a diversion where there was no board and were all woken up from sleep by big jerk. Luckily nothing happened.We reached namakkal at around 8.30 or so and had breakfast from a nice hotel this time
On the way back we stopped at sunflower farm and it was really nice as this was the first time we saw a sunflower farm.We were back at home by 12 in the noon.Overall it was nice trip.
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